"I'm just a great, great believer that you've gotta do what you dream," said Cepeda, who's "acting on that axiom right now." "You're never too old. That's something I believe in. I really love what I'm doing. Try it. At least try it."

Cepeda is beginning to achieve her belated goal - as a singer, guitar player and songwriter - in Ms Lizzie and Her Cadillac Kings, who'll keep on trying Saturday at Whirlow's in Stockton.

"She loves it," said Jim Damiano, her Stockton guitar teacher who plays in Cepeda's three-piece band. "She shows it when she sings. I love her loving what she does. I don't know if it gets any better these days."

What Cepeda, Damiano, bass player Joe Gramm and drummer Jeff Devine - both Stockton residents - do is mix elements of jump-blues, rockabilly and jazz with bits of pop-soul. It's an energetic hybrid.

"My main thing in life is I'm a musician," said Cepeda, 55, who worked in optometry in Stockton before forming her band three years ago. "It's kinda scary, but it's a good goal to be working toward."

"When she discovered she could sing, she just kept getting better," said Damiano, 58, a guitar tutor at Stockton's Music Go Round. "She still hasn't stopped getting better. She's totally dedicated. That's what it takes. She's a real worker bee."

Cepeda consistently coaches herself, too.

"Every show we do, we record," said Cepeda, who's played guitar since she was a teenager but never envisioned a musical career. "Then we go over it."

She also uses a Singers Workshop book and CD, warm-up exercises and advice from other vocalists.

"I decided I wanted to have a band," said Cepeda, who's been taught by Damiano for nine years. That meant singing.

After hearing herself, "I really needed to improve on my control," she said. "That's a big part of it. Proper breathing control. You also have to be fit, drink lots of water and get plenty of rest. To last a four-hour show, you really have to have stamina."

"They're really recognizable," said Damiano, noting the band's bookings have tripled since their inclusion. "This ramps it up to another level."

Born in Houston, Cepeda and her family - father Amalio, a machinist; mother Olivia, who worked at Coats & Clark; and a sister - were living in Aurora, Ill., when she discovered the guitar at age 13. She started with the Eagles' "Witchy Woman."

After marrying, she moved to San Francisco. The cost of living led her to Stockton in the "late 1980s."

While working at Lens Crafters in Weberstown Mall, Cepeda saved her money and, in 1995, enrolled in a six-month course at Hollywood's Musicians Institute.

"More than anything, I learned self-confidence," she said. "It was music all day and all night. I started to see a lot of insight into myself."

Back in Stockton, she worked for an optician and continued her guitar lessons, focusing on music by Raitt and blues pioneers Ruth Brown and Mabel Scott.

She also began writing songs, eight of which were included on her 10-track debut album ("Ms Lizzie and Her Cadillac Kings"). The group's name derived from the band's first performance - a car show at Royce Farms BBQ in Stockton.

She doesn't "force it" with the song-writing process. For example: "One day, I was out in the backyard and I started humming this melody. I threw down my broom, ran in the house and wrote the song ("I Hurt"). I don't know what brings it on. I try not to put any personal stuff in my music. I'm kind of introverted."

She and Damiano also perform in a duet (Heart & Soul) as a "calling card" for the band.

Originally from New York, Damiano has lived in Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

He started playing harmonica and guitar as a 7-year-old. Influenced by the Beatles and San Francisco's Beau Brummels, he wrote songs for A&M Records and worked as an electronics technician.

After returning to Sacramento, his first wife (Theresa) died from leukemia in 1973: "It was the tragedy of my life. I had to put it behind me."

Damiano, a father of two daughters, has lived in Stockton for 14 years - teaching guitar and writing and recording his own songs.

He and Cepeda have begun pre-production on a second album at Rick Duncan's Lodi studio (NACNUD). The band is scheduled to play on July 27 as part of the summer series at Jessie's Grove Winery in Lodi.

The Internet also has created more exposure, especially after a French writer (Bernard Boyat) uploaded a positive review of the first album. Damiano uses as many cyber-circulation outlets as he can.

"She's amazed at the number of people who love her music," he said. "I don't thinks she realizes how good she is. I'm proud of her. Like one of my children."